Belley is thrilled to have seen the team catch fire like it has. With a lot of hockey still left to played, however, he’s hopeful that the group can remain cohesive and play to the best of its abilities for the remainder of the season.

“It’s always great to win,” he said. “The atmosphere is great with the guys in the dressing room. We’re having fun. For sure, the start of the season was difficult. But we felt like we never gave up and that we have a lot of character on this team. I hope it continues like this.”

Growing up in Gatineau, Belley has played almost his entire career representing his hometown. Obsessed with hockey from a young age, he played mostly at the BB level for Gatineau before playing in Midget AA for the Outaouais Intrepide in his final year.

He attended l’École Secondaire Nicolas Gatineau where he developed in their Sport Études hockey program. Playing on a regular basis alongside other people who were equally passionate about the game, he believes his time at the school played a significant role in his development as a player and as a person.

“We practiced almost every day,” he said. “So, for sure you improve and I think it’s a great school of life. The coaches know what to do to make us players and people as well. As an individual, you develop a lot more than in regular school.”

Always striving to reach his highest potential, Belley remembers spending a large portion of his childhood attached to the game he loved.

“When I was a baby, I would wander around carrying a mini-stick and played everywhere in the house,” he said. “My dad made me skate when I was three years-old. I was always playing hockey or watching hockey and could never get enough of it.”

Growing up with two older siblings 10 and 14 years older than he was Belley believes his daily surroundings were very beneficial to his maturity and character on and off the ice.

“When I was young, I was more of a sore loser,” he said. “At some point, I realized that, in hockey, you can’t have an attitude like that if you want to go far. It really helped me change my attitude.”

As a dominant young player, Belley said that – despite his natural offensive instincts and dynamic skillset – he was interested in becoming a defenseman because it would put him in a position to see the ice even more. Looking up to NHL superstars like Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey, Belley modeled his style of play after some of his favorite pro defensemen.

“I’m a player with a pretty good IQ,” he said. “So, I like being behind the play, to start nice plays and I enjoy carrying the puck.”

After his final year of Midget, Belley attended the Gatineau Mustangs Junior B tryouts in Buckingham, Que. While he didn’t expect much initially, the Mustangs head coach at the time, Pierre Grandmaison, noticed Belley’s abilities and selected him on the team.

“It’s a little bit of an open try out. The coach spotted me, he was making cuts, but he kept me and kept me and I eventually made the team.”

“The first year I wasn’t expecting to make it,” he added. “I was surprised and I was really happy.”

In his first year with the Mustangs (2013-14), Belley put up 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 35 games, helping the team finish fourth place in the Metro division in the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League (EOJHL).

Struggling to find his groove for the better part of his first Junior season, Belley admitted that the league’s rugged style of play made the transition from minor hockey to the Junior level less seamless than he would’ve liked.

“The style of play is very different,” he said. “In my first year of Junior, it was a little bit intimidating. You arrive and you’re a 17-18 year-old kid going up against 20-21 year-olds and there are fights. You had to keep it in account, so it plays on the mind,”

Along with completely changing positions, being slotted as a forward after playing his entire career on defense, Belley noted that Junior hockey forced him out of his comfort zone in a number of ways.

“I went from a player who was 100 per cent offensive, to a two-way player – someone who’s good defensively who can also produce offensively,” he said.

During the following season, one that Belley recalls being the most memorable of his career, he put up 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 39 games, helping his team clinch second place in the Metro division along with a berth in the conference finals. Putting a cherry on the cake, his Mustangs also qualified for the Dodge Cup where they won their way to the knockout stage before being eliminated in the semi-finals.

“All the guys were one big family,” he said. “Everyone loved one another, we had each other’s backs. It was really great. We were very well treated by the organization. There were a lot of great moments. The team had a lot of success that year.”

For his third and final year of Junior, Belley had to find another place to play since the Gatineau Flames had been removed from the EOJHL. During the offseason, he spoke with Grandmaison, who had been named as the first head coach of the newly established Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League (QJAAAHL) team, the Gatineau Flames.

Knowing he could rely on his abilities with a young expansion club, Grandmaison was interested in acquiring Belley’s services and invited him to try out for the team.

“I had to decide ‘Should I play hockey just for fun in Junior C or should I step up and play my final year in Junior AAA?” he said. “So, I showed up to try outs and I made the Junior AAA team.”

In his lone season as a Flame, Belley scored 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) in 54 games, while playing alongside Comets teammate Hugo Petit. While his team didn’t experience much success – winning seven games all season – Belley felt like his time in Junior AAA was extremely positive for his growth as a player.

Transitioning from a more systemic and defensive game in the EOJHL to the high-flying open style of play in the QJAAAHL, Belley said he had to sharpen up his skating and stickhandling skills in order to keep up with the phenoms of the league.

“In Junior AAA there were guys that – most of them were drafted in the QMJHL – were all amazing hockey players,” he said. “It really benefitted me, playing with really good players against other good players … I think I really progressed even if we didn’t have a good year as a team.”

“Playing against talented players, with talented players, you don’t have a choice but to improve if you want to keep up with the game,” he added.

Once his Junior career was over, Belley was still hungry to play hockey.

While he didn’t receive calls to go pro like he dreamed of as a kid, he did get in touch with University of Ottawa Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaitre who proposed him the idea of trying out for the team.

In the process of bringing back its hockey team, after a two-year hiatus, Belley said he was interested in joining the Gee-Gees.

But already studying administrative finance at l’Universite du Quebec en Outaouais in Hull, at the time, he wasn’t ready to throw away the progress he had made for something that wasn’t guaranteed.

“I was already at UQO, I was in University in Hull already,” he said. “To do the try out, I had to be a student at the University of Ottawa and I didn’t want to take any chances of changing universities and not making the team.”

Plus, with tuition fees significantly lower and the commute less of a pain at UQO, he decided it was best to stick with what he had going on and essentially call it a career.

However, during the offseason, Belley spoke with one of his old Mustang teammates David Ouellette who said he was returning home to Beloeil, Que. to play senior hockey since his Junior years had come to a close.

“We stayed in touch and I asked him how he liked things over there,” Belley said. “He said things were great. So, he talked to his coach about me joining the team”

At the start of the 2017-18 season, Belley travelled to Beloeil to join the Riverains of the Richelieu Senior Hockey League (RSHL) for a one-game trial to see if he wanted to stick around and if the team was interested in what he had to offer.

After officially joining the team, Belley played nine games with the Riverains, putting up three points. While he was happy to still be playing hockey in a competitive setting, he admitted that he didn’t exactly enjoy his time in the league mainly because of what kind of hockey it offered.

“It wasn’t really my style of play,” he said. “It’s a league that’s really physical. There are a lot of big guys, a lot of toughness and it wasn’t my style of play. So, I didn’t come back to play there after that. I have more fun playing here.”

The following summer, Belley received a Facebook message from Comets’ director of hockey operations, Sebastien Bonnerot, regarding an opportunity to join the newly established Pontiac Senior Comets.

After trying out his first game in the OSAAHL, Belley realized that the league offered exactly what he had been missing – fast, offensive-based competitive hockey.

“Pretty much, it was the thrill of competitive hockey that I was missing,” he said. “So, that’s why I wanted to go back to playing hockey.”

In his first season in Comets colours (2018-19), Belley played forward where he ended up fourth on the team in scoring, with 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 18 games.

After enjoying himself so much during the team’s inaugural season, Belley said he was thrilled about returning for another kick at the can when tryouts began back in July.

“It’s a great group of guys and it’s fun to have that feeling of seeing the guys every week,” he said.

Playing a two-way forward role throughout his Junior career and during his first season with the Comets, Belley said that he spoke with head coach Jean-Francois Lavergne who previously knew him as an offensive defenseman and wanted to use him in such a role to help balance the Comets’ dynamic lineup.

“Last year I played on offense and this year I went on defense,” he said. “I spoke with J-F Lavergne … since we already had a lot of forwards and we were lacking defensemen, he asked me to try things out on defense and he was happy with the job I did. So, we kept things going like that.”

Away from the rink, the 24-year-old Gatineau native still resides in his hometown and is just about set to earn his Bachelor’s degree in administrative finance from UQO.

Currently working for the federal government in Ottawa, Belley said he plans on continuing his career in the same field while playing the game he loves for as long as life allows him to.

“I’m still young and I have time,” he said. “I live with my girlfriend and in a few years, I’ll have a kid, a house, obligations and all that. So, I don’t know if I’ll be able to play for long. But for now, that’s what I want to do.”

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